[1992-10-17-WWF-Superstars] Bob Backlund feature

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This feels so completely disconnected from everything else, not even in the world, but including in the WWF. The 70s music combined with the old clips and the attempt to humanize him in a company where he's alongside cartoon characters just doesn't add up. I'm a fan of Backlund's comeback, but this is bizarre stuff.

[Tim Evans]

This is like something you would see in Memphis or something. Not bad but just wrong era.

[El-P]

I remember those clips. This was indeed so odd, because it made Backlund look like a relic from some ancient time, when he was the same age as Ric Flair (43), and Savage was already 41.

[shoe]

These are cool though.

[PeteF3]

The standard WWF presentation was that these guys didn't exist outside of the wrestling bubble--no lives, no families unless it was convenient to the character. So to say this is a departure from that would be an understatement. And the stuff with Backlund and his co-worker talking about the comeback while building a house is even weirder.

[WingedEagle]

Vince narrating an over the top babyface video recap of Backlund, his career and family. Talks about giving up his construction business to return to the WWF.

[garretta]

I think this was when George Foreman was the hottest thing in boxing. I'm not sure if he'd won the heavyweight championship of the world just yet, but if he hadn't, he would soon. Vince probably thought a similar storyline would make money, and everyone else further back than Bobby was too old to believably return.

 

As for why the presentation feels so out of place, this was probably what Vince could get Bobby to agree to. I know enough about Bobby to know that if he couldn't have come back the way he wanted to, he wouldn't have come back at all. He might have thought that his babyface character could come back as is and fit right in eight years later. Either that or he saw what Vince was promoting these days and thought a plain wrestler would be a nice change of pace. One thing's for sure: Mr. Backlund wasn't even a glimmer in Vince's eye yet, or Bobby's for that matter.

[dawho5]

Definitely out of place, but it fits Backlund.